Stay Cool: How the Best News Presenters Remain Calm Under Pressure

Featuring Melissa Doyle, Jessica Rowe, Fauziah Ibrahim and Anna Holligan

 It’s that sick feeling in the pit of your stomach.

You’re hot. So, so hot. Your hands are clammy and sweat is starting to prick your neck and pool on your upper lip. Suddenly the TV camera is in your face and the industry-sized blinding lights are flicked on. You’re told there are ten seconds until the live interview begins. You don’t know how to stand, where to look, what to do with your hands and you’re worried your stripy shirt won’t work on camera. You’re desperately trying to remember your key messages - will the journalist try to trick you? What if you say the wrong thing or your mind goes blank? The room is now feeling extra small and starting to spin. Can someone open a window!? Your eyes are darting around looking for the nearest exit. You want to run. You now have two seconds before the camera starts rolling. You don’t know if you can do it…

It’s no secret that for many people, facing a live TV interview is at the top of the list when it comes to their greatest fears. Psychology Today reports that the fear of public speaking, or Glossophobia as it is more formally known, is as common as we think, with almost 1 in 4 people reporting feeling anxious when presenting ideas and information in front of an audience. Will I stuff up? Will I look like an idiot? Will my mind go blank? Will I say the wrong thing? Will I fall over? These are all common thoughts running through our heads.

But after around 20 years of working in the TV broadcast industry, I’ve come to learn that even the professional presenters - who face the camera day in and day out - have their own fears. Yep, even the pros have bad days.

So how do the TV gurus get in the zone in order to truly nail their performance? And secondly, how do they find their true grit - their voice - and overcome nerves or feelings of inadequacy when the sh*t hits the proverbial fan (live on air)? I spoke with some of the best in the biz to hear their worst horror stories and learn how the hell they got over it.

LET GO AND SPEAK FROM THE HEART

For Jessica Rowe, who I had the pleasure of producing at Seven’s Weekend Sunrise, less is often more. The author, journalist, presenter and CEO of Crap Housewife tells me this is a major theme in her book, ‘Diary of a Crap Housewife’.

“I’ve spoken in front of audiences for over 20 years. When I first started I would write everything down and read it word for word. I didn’t feel I could do it unless I had a whole script in front of me. I would underline key words and mark pauses where I could take a breath!” Jess explains.

“Over the years, I started to let go of that need to write down every ‘and’ and ‘the’ and would write my speeches in point form. Then over time, those points got shorter as I grew in confidence about what I’d be talking about.”

However, of course nerves can still strike, Jess says, especially when the expectations you put on yourself, also grow.

“Most recently I was due to give a keynote to Facebook in Asia and I found myself paralysed by fear and anxiety. Why? I let myself be overwhelmed by the size of the audience and the location. It was the biggest and broadest audience I had presented to …That familiar voice, that I hadn’t heard in a long time popped up, ‘what would you have to say? Why would these women want to hear from you?’... I kept re-writing my speech and had bits of paper strewn all over the bed in my hotel room. I lost my way and my confidence because I was second guessing myself. What got me in the right headspace?? My darling husband called me, and calmly talked me through my speech. He said, ‘This is your story pussycat. You know it, trust yourself ...’ and that worked - I threw out all my scrappy notes and got out a fresh piece of paper, wrote out my points and spoke from the heart. And I nailed it!”

IT’S SO POWERFUL TO BE YOURSELF

I worked alongside Anna Holligan when we were both broadcast journalists at BBC World News in London. I instantly liked Anna – she’s smart, quirky, ballsy and not afraid to be herself. Anna has gone on to become a star and is now a foreign correspondent for the BBC, based at the Hague in The Netherlands. Anna is also a passionate documentary storyteller, film maker, radio presenter and a wonderful mum.

When I asked Anna about whether she felt nervous ahead of live crosses or experienced bouts of not feeling good enough, she told me:

“I used to believe in layering. Designer blazers, overly complicated words, double work days to ensure there wouldn’t be a question on live TV I couldn’t answer. That was always most likely to make me freeze, aside from the imposter syndrome.

“I felt completely undeserving of the role I’d got purely through practice, focus and absolute dedication and determination. So I piled on the layers of all the stuff I thought would transform me into one of the female foreign correspondents I admired so much growing up.

“‘Just be yourself’ must be one of the most cliché pieces of advice - it was only when someone broke it down for me recently that it finally resonated. What makes us unique is of more value than the things we often think we should be trying to emulate.”

Anna explains that she used to worry about “the posh, middle class men judging my accent and gender-related voice/appearance” but now, whenever she has a moment (“usually just before going live on the BBC”) of “‘s**t what if I forget everything or sound rubbish...” she shakes it off and remembers she has a story to tell.

DO THE WORK AND BE PREPARED

Melissa Doyle is the queen of Australian TV broadcast news. A talented professional in every respect and greatly loved and respected within the industry for the generous advice and support she provides to other journalists around her. As well as producing Mel on Sunrise I’ve also produced with Mel in the field, notably the Royal Wedding in London (Kate and Wills) plus an unforgettable trip through the steppes of Mongolia and impoverished city communities of Ulaanbaatar filming with World Vision. Every day filming with Mel is a masterclass in storytelling.

Mel tells me, for her, a solid performance is down to going on stage or going live to air knowing she has already done her job - researched, asked questions, formed her thoughts - and is therefore ready to roll with whatever is thrown her way.

“It’s all about putting in the hard work and being well prepared. Don’t just try to wing it without doing your homework.”

Of all the broadcasters I have worked with, Mel Doyle is the most present in the moment. She is centred and focussed. She knows what she wants to achieve and she’s done the work to execute exactly that. It’s very hard to hit the target if you have zero idea what you are indeed aiming for.

IT’S ALL GOING TO BE OK

News anchor and broadcast journalist Fauziah Ibrahim is bang on when she says, “Any woman knows that facing a camera or audience taps into that innate fear of being judged. Women know that at any time or place, they’re being evaluated (by all genders!) on what they’re wearing, their hair, their makeup, their voice, their posture, their confidence, or lack thereof.”

As a former Al Jazeera English presenter at the channel's main broadcast centre, Doha in Qatar, and now co-host of Weekend Breakfast on Australia's ABC News network, Fauziah has extensive experience in being on camera, in a live, often chaotic, breaking news scenario. She epitomises grace under fire in the most high-pressure version of presenting possible.

She explains, when fronting up to thousands of eyes (real or imagined), that fear of being judged is magnified by the number of (real or imagined) eyes. And then mentally multiplied to the infinity.

“This leads to more noise and distraction than necessary in the mind. My tip before going on air or on stage, is to never look in the mirror. That way, I will not obsess over my choice of wardrobe, lipstick, hairstyle etc. Of course I make an overall spinach-in-the-teeth check long before the task at hand. And then fully focus on the task at hand.”

Fauziah also encourages us to embrace our mistakes and be natural. Once on stage or on camera, flubbing, forgetting lines, train of thought, loss of sentence structure is … well, natural. It’s what happens in daily conversations. She says admit the mistake, or the nerves, or the excitement, or the mind-blank - say it out loud. Then move on.

“There have been innumerable times when news presenting on air, and the autocue goes down mid-sentence. The scripts on the anchor desk are a mess of notes and I’ve lost my place. At those time, I’ve narrated to the audience what’s happened, while scrambling to get the right scripts in front of me. If I had a blooper reel, ‘Bear with me, while I find the right script’ would be the constant mantra. It honestly makes you human, and relatable, and therefore endearing to the audience.” 

Forgetting the name of an interview guest or keynote speaker is also not the end of the world – and can instead be used to win the audience over.

“Once, I was introducing a renowned speaker to a Sydney Opera House theatre audience. I walked out on stage to the podium with a confident stride. I looked down at my notes, and realized I had the wrong ones. My mind blanked out. I couldn’t remember the speaker’s name much less my reason for living. I looked out at the thousands of eyes looking back expectantly at me. All I could do was shrug and apologise for suddenly having a mind-blank, putting it down to the excitement of being part of the event. The audience laughed, giving me enough time to look up at the stage screen to sight the very important name and subject. The tension had been broken; a bond had been formed between the audience and me. I felt comfortable enough to speak from the heart. It was one of the best introductions I’ve ever given” Fauziah says.

SO, IN CONCLUSION

So, while ego and fear is all about protecting ourselves in risky situations, letting that fear stand between you and your audience is a damn-right shame and could prevent you from sharing informative, thought provoking and even life-changing ideas that may help others.

So be brave, have a positive mindset (power poses and visualisation do work!) and don’t skip the hard work. And most importantly, as these exceptional broadcasters have all reminded us here, if you do stuff up, remember that you will be ok. And the more often you feel the fear and have a go, the more you realise you can do it.

Go for it! We believe in you.

And we’re here to help further if you need it.